


Earrings and Necklaces

by jisungtheworld (winwinnie)



Series: The Forest Speaks [2]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Chan and Woojin are only mentioned, Domestic Fluff, Faerie Lee Minho | Lee Know, Fluff, Ghost Han Jisung | Han, M/M, and Renjun is just implied, and minho is a quality boyfriend, does this count as domestic?, jisung is a sad ghost boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 14:34:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17920673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winwinnie/pseuds/jisungtheworld
Summary: Between the branches of the forest, between the dark warnings and shapes that only appear in the corner of your eye.As Jisung sits in the graveyard, he knows that not everything that lives in the shadows is bad.Because he knows Minho.





	Earrings and Necklaces

**Author's Note:**

> minor warning for mentions of death and bones

Minho visits Jisung again a week after they find the missing boy's camera.

A week is the longest they can stay away from each other, the designated time to let the disappearance be forgotten. It's the time it takes for graveyard to go back to its familiar silence, and it's the time it takes for the camera to be yet another memory of a missing child.

Apparently it was found in the middle of the woods, abandoned.

Apparently the boy was never seen without it.

Apparently, that's enough for the town to decide that he's dead.

Or anything as good as, Jisung thinks. He stands at the back of the crowd when they hold his funeral, listening to the stories about how smart and talented this boy was, about how much potential he had, about how it's such a shame that he had to go off and get himself killed.

He wonders whether they talked about him like that at his funeral.

The boys friends place a small pair of iron earrings at the base of the tombstone. They're rather plain, not the prettier he's ever seen, but they look worn enough to hold some sort of sentimental value. Jisung watches as they're left, and he wonders whether the iron was intentional or an unlucky coincidence.

If anything, he decides that the boy shouldn't have taken them out. He knows the camera was found in Fae territory, and knows firsthand that not all smiles are as kind as they first seen.

Eventually, the earrings are taken by a magpie.

That's the event that marks the passing of a week, and Minho pushes past the gate just as the sun dips its head beneath the tree line. It colours the sky in bright links and deep reds, before slipping into the darkest purples and blues. The green leaves fade until they're the same black as his hair, and you'd never think that they were ever anything but in the first place.

Jisung's hair is blonde. It has been for the last fifteen years.

He sits on the same bench he always does as he waits for Minho to approach. It's the one second from the left in the row, with a copper name plaque instead of silver.

The writing has long been worn away, the sad result of many years of rain and snow, but Jisung still remembers what it said.

_To Chan, from Woojin. Never forget._

Jisung wonders who Chan and Woojin are. He wonders why they wanted the bench to stand out, and he wonders what their story was. Why they left a piece of their story in a graveyard in the outskirts of a dangerous forest.

He doesn't need to wonder whether Chan remembered or not. The bench hasn't been visited for ten years.

It has slightly longer legs than the rest as well, so his feet don't quite touch the ground if he leans all the way back in just the right place. He closes his eyes, as he always does, and lets them swing for a few seconds. The laces on his left shoe brush against the ground. No matter how much he does them up, they always come undone.

He only opens them again when he hears Minho approach.

And as always, the older takes his breath away.

His dark hair shines in the light of the setting sun, eyes almost aglow in the dusky evening. He smiles, and his teeth are slightly too sharp, his grin slightly too wide. Jisung can't imagine him any other way.

"Sungie," he says as he sits down next to him, "I'm sorry I'm late. I brought you this to make up for it."

Jisung doesn't need to worry about Faerie etiquette. He doesn't need to to listen to the rules, because he knows that Minho would never hurt him.

And besides, what use would a dead boy be?

Without hesitating, he takes the tiny parcel from Minho's hand. "For me?" he hears himself whisper, even though he knows it's stupid. Who else would it be for? They're surrounded by empty graves.

Minho knows that. "Oh no, sorry," he says, whisking it out of Jisung's grasp, "I forgot, it's for my Great Aunt Esther. She's turning one thousand and three this year"

Jisung pauses for a second, letting the joke sink in. Then he opens his mouth and laughs. It's a giddy laugh, full of air and probably too loud considering that the joke wasn't even that funny in the first place. But there's no one to hear him, and Minho is laughing too.

Jisung doesn't laugh when Minho isn't around.

He doesn't think Minho laughs without him either.

He grabs the parcel back while Minho still has his head thrown back, and rips into the paper. There's still a strange sense of excitement when his fingers don't pass through the paper. One week without the older, and he's already used to the familiar intangibility, used to fading into the background like he was never there in the first place.

Vaguely, he remembers that he used to be bright. Maybe in the same way as a star, with huge amounts of energy that lit up wherever he went.

He used to be so full of life that no one ever expected it to be snuffed out so suddenly.

What remains of that side of him still exists. It appears every time he's with Minho, in the same way that the older keeps him grounded. The longer they're together, the brighter his eyes shine.

And in return, Jisung sees Minho without judgement.

Between the layers of paper is a tiny box. Wooden, with a dark colour and sheen that makes it look expensive. There's a tiny silver clasp at the front, and he clicks it open.

Inside, is a thin chain.

He doesn't recognise the metal, except that whatever it is very shiny. It's just long enough to be a necklace, with a fastening at the back. But he can immediately tell that what's connected to it is more important that the chain could be.

Hanging from the very front, twisted up in the same metal as the chain, is a tiny fragment of bone.

"Minho-" Jisung starts. He takes it out of the box, letting his fingers brush over the velvet insides for a second too long.

Minho turns to face him, and reaches down his own t-shirt. When his hand reappears, there's a matching chain hanging from it. Jisnubg wonders how he didn't notice the shining metal against his skin before. It practically glows now that he knows it's there, the light colour standing out even more on the rapidly darkening night. "Do you like it?"

"Help me put it on." Jisung doesn't need to say he likes it. He still struggles for words after so many years of silence, and actions speak louder anyway. He lets Minho brush his hair out of the way and fasten the necklace. It falls against his chest, and he knows that if he could still feel properly, the metal would be cold.

The bone would be warm.

He could recognise the fragment anywhere. Its twin hangs from Minho's neck, a gift to remind him of the younger. The bone from the smallest finger of his left hand. Now its partner is back by Jisung's chest, his little fingers finally reunited by the lovers hearts.

"Thank you." He says, and he means it.

Minho smiles. He stands, and pulls Jisung from the bench. "Follow me."

They walk across to the very edge of the grave yard. The gate is iron, but it's too rusted over and bent to do any severe harm to him Besides, the wall on either side of it is mostly on the ground so they can just step around it. The stones lie discarded around the metal railing, and Minho gets through the gap easily, though Jisung can't miss the way his face contorts when his palm brushes against the gate.

He doesn't let go of Jisung though.

"Come on." He says, and he pulls his hand slightly, seeing how the younger hesitates.

Jisung can't help it. He hasn't left the confinements of the graveyard since he was lowered into the soil there. He's tied to the mossy building and rotting benches in the same way that Minho is tied to the forest. He travels where the trees stretch their branches, passing between their shadows like he was never there at all.

His free hand comes up and squeezes the necklace tightly, until the bone digs into his hand.

"Come on," Minho says again, "It'll be fine." He takes a step closer, until they're only just standing on opposite sides of the boundary. He leans in and whispers to Jisung, the ghost of his breath warm of Jisung's cold neck. "I promise."

And Jisung steps over the wall.

For a second, he can feel the line that ties him to the cracked concrete headstone tightening, squeezing at his chest. He can feel his ribs breaking all over again, and then there's a unfamiliar burning in his chest. The bone is almost on fire, pressing to the base of his neck without mercy. Then the line relaxes, the necklace is just as cold as it was before, and he can breathe again.

And there's something connecting him to Minho that's breathtakingly new.

It overpowers the pull of the graveyard, and he manages to take a step forward, stumbling further than the wall for the first time in fifteen years.

He stumbles right into Minho's arms.

"Come on," says the Faerie. He doesn't comment on how Jisung's face is buried in his shoulder, just as Jisung doesn't comment on the tears that dampen his hair. "How would you like to see the sunrise somewhere new?"

**Author's Note:**

> me, turning up to the party three months late: VAMPIRE CHAN VAMPIRE CHAN VAMPIRE CHAN
> 
> this is kind of Bad and has No Plot, but i needed to write something minsung
> 
> thanks for reading *blows kiss*


End file.
